When you think of Disney movies, the first thing that comes to your mind is most likely fairy tales and musicals. While this is their bread and butter, Disney has been trying to make its mark on other genres for decades. They have invested heavily in sports films, comedy, action, adventure, and science fiction. While many of the genres they tried proved successful in their own right, the company never quite figured out science fiction. There was a constant feeling that they didn’t have enough material designed specifically for boys, so they kept trying to make these projects and diversify their creative activities. Not too long ago, Disney was so desperate to capture this part of the market that they tried to reposition their animated fairy tales to market them with boys in mind. The biggest example of this was Rapunzel renamed to confused with most of the trailers and marketing materials focused on Flynn Ryder, the main male Han Solo-type character played by the future. Shazam star Zachary Levy. Bye confused was definitely successful, it wasn’t enough to win over a completely different demographic.
With a recent Disney release Strange world falling short of expectations after a non-existent marketing campaign, it serves as yet another reminder of Disney’s long history of failures in producing lengthy sci-fi adventures. Despite Bob Iger solved this problem by simply buying out companies that were already successful in sci-fi, action and adventure films, they still hadn’t given up on their own sci-fi projects. But, unfortunately, with Strange worldobviously they never learned from their long history of making the same mistakes.
Black Hole (1979)
One of the earliest examples of Disney’s failed attempts at science fiction was Black hole. The film began to be developed in the early 70s as a pastiche of the disaster films that were very popular at the time. But no one in the company or involved in the project was ever completely satisfied with this direction. That is, until the titanic release star Wars in 1977, which essentially caused a major overnight shift in Hollywood filmmaking towards spectacle and blockbusters. This caused Disney to renew their interest in Black hole and pushed it into the 1979 release, which was somewhat disappointing.
In the end, the film got its money back, but not in a huge amount. The more serious problem was that it didn’t have a strong impact on the audience, like star Wars did. Most people just found it boring. On a positive note, this film is one of the early pioneers of computer-generated effects, which combined with matte patterns and in-camera effects created a distinct look. Over the years, the film has become somewhat of a cult classic (as you’ll see many times in this article) and respectable enough as Disney’s first stab in the dark to let them know they still have causes and remedies. continue to try yourself in this genre. It’s just a shame that, judging by their next big push, they’ve learned all the wrong lessons from this movie.
Throne (1982)
Throne it’s a film that’s more remembered for its aesthetic than anything else. It’s a story we’ve heard a million times: Man gets stuck in the computer world. While this is a great idea and is still often featured in the popular media, this movie may have been ahead of its time for 1982. This was the year ET the video game almost caused the death of the entire video game industry. This was just two years after pacman and three years prior to the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Mario Bros.which made video games popular again. There was no widespread understanding of computers and video games yet. All this suggests that the concept may have been too niche at the time.
But being remembered for aesthetics is not bad; the story is not always the most important part of the films. Just look James CameronX Avatar, the film is constantly criticized for its basic story, but it is remembered fondly and was such a huge success because everything else that made it magical was embodied in it. As well as Throne very magical! His blue mainframe world was a unique universe never seen before. The light cycles and action moments were so spectacular that they became the basis for their own video games and even theme park rides.
Long term exposure Throne there could be visual effects, a double bet on the most respected aspect of Black hole, but it never seemed to hit the spot as the multimedia franchise that Disney had always hoped for. Second Throne The film was released in 2010 along with a spin-off animated series shortly thereafter. But even though they had their cult following, the return on investment never justified them. The third film has been under threat since the release of the second, but so far nothing has come out of it except for announcements. The franchise never reached the heights it had the potential to, but at least it provided us with one of the best worlds in Kingdom Hearts 2.
Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and Treasure Planet (2002)
These films are united because of similar techniques and productions. It’s hard to talk about one without another crawling out from around the corner. Both were more of an experimental animated film that Disney was able to venture into thanks to the huge success of the Disney Renaissance. Both were inspired by classic novels, 20,000 leagues under the sea as well as Treasure Island, backdating. Both, like the previous films on the list, developed a lot of CGI technology but incorporated it into 2D animation. Both were even some of the first examples of Disney leaning towards villains that proved successful for them in the 2010s and beyond.
The problem with these films was not their quality, storytelling, or even marketing campaigns, as with previous films. They may be rougher around the edges than some other renaissance films, but like the previously mentioned films, they have their own dedicated followings. The biggest reason for the bombing of these films was simply the climate in the cinema at the time. 2D animation was no longer as successful, and every studio that produced it faced similar results. It’s been several years since Pixar and DreamWorks started releasing CGI animated films regularly and consistently. Computer animation was what it was at the time, the new technology captivated audiences and eventually became the standard for big-budget animated films. Perhaps these films could get more love and universal success if Disney decided to release live-action remakes. An argument could be made that the remakes of these two films would be better than some of the others released by Disney in recent years.
John Carter (2012)
John Carter, on paper, should have been a success. It was based on intellectual property, it was a visual performance and directorial debut Andrew Stanton after he had great success directing films such as Finding Nemo as well as WALL-E. But something about it always felt wrong. John Carter the books and series were very old and inspired many other popular sci-fi titles (such as Star Wars) to the point where there was nothing unique about them anymore. The cast didn’t generate much interest, the marketing was poor, and the title change seemed to doom the film. The name was originally supposed to be John Carter from Mars but was eventually reduced to just John Carter. The “Mars” part of the title proved to be crucial because it adds so much context to what the movie really is. The very name “John Carter” doesn’t tell you anything about the movie unless you already know who the character is. It’s a shame he couldn’t bring people in because it could have been a great franchise. This film serves as a microcosm of what troubles Disney had with science fiction during that era. Earth of the future repeated almost all the same mistakes three years later. While the film has its fans, it was failures like this that led Disney to let Marvel and star Wars take care of these genres for them.
Strange World (2022)
You can really see the pattern that led to the bombing Strange world. Lack of a decent marketing campaign, vague title and average critical ratings. All the same problems that have haunted their sci-fi films since the 70s. Even if the quality star Wars Fans and critics have been failing lately, and letting other studios tackle these other genres they don’t excel in was the right business move for Disney. The fact that Disney is constantly trying to make science fiction anyway is actually admirable. This is a good sign, at least for creatives who continue to get a chance to move away from the typical Disney production. If only the company would really learn from their mistakes and make one of them as successful as their hits in other genres. For now, we can hope that Strange world gets another shot at viewers when it’s released on Disney+.
Source: Collider
